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Rep. McCarthy: Next time check your facts before bloviating about DC bike "racks"
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As WashCycle reported yesterday, Republican Chief Deputy Whip Kevin McCarthy recently attacked District officials for wasting stimulus money on “new bike racks” when he delivered the weekly Republican address.
As seen in the clip below, a scornful McCarthy had the following to say:
"The trillion dollar stimulus bill, the $410 billion omnibus stimulus bill, and the massively irresponsible Democratic budget that doubles the debt in just ten years and triples the debt in ten years. All this money, but why are we funding a skate board park in Rhode Island and new bike racks in Washington, DC?"
First of all, Congressman McCarthy, below is a typical DC "bike rack." The stimulus money isn’t going to these.
What the money is going to, in contrast, is new stations for DC’s bike-rental service SmartBike DC. The SmartBike program—not unlike Zipcar—allows members to use bikes that are stationed around the city for an annual fee. Here’s what they look like:
There’s good reason that District City officials have decided to invest in a bike-sharing program, just as officials in many other major cities around the world have. Namely: creating viable alternative transportation system will help reduce the city’s crushing traffic congestion problems.
Every year, D.C. earns the dubious distinction of being one of America’s most congested cities. One only needs to wander downtown or try to get out of the city on one of the main arteries during rush hour to understand why. According to a report from the Texas Transportation Institute, the organization that has conducted the nation’s longest running study of congestion, the average District commuters gets delayed in traffic for more than 60 hours per year.
As we all know, getting caught in traffic is infuriating. Perhaps less understood is that it’s also expensive. The authors of the same report conclude that the cost per traveler is more $1,094 per person each year. In total, the report concludes, excess traffic costs the DC region more than $2.3 billion per year. The fewer people in their cars, in other words, the more money we all save.
Finally, Congressman McCarthy, we’re talking about $3 million in spending. In comparison, as the graph from Recovery.gov below shows, the stimulus package contains nearly $288 billion in tax relief. Why you find a few million dollar for bike “racks” so irritating and fiscally irresponsible in comparison to that gigantic number is a real head scratcher.
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